An Exploration of the Construct Validity of a Leadership Behavior Rating System.

TLDR: In this article, the construct validity of a leadership behavior rating system used by the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) was examined as a prelude to a longitudinal program of research on leadership development.

Abstract: : The construct validity of a leadership behavior rating system used by the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) was examined as a prelude to a longitudinal program of research on leadership development. Their system centers on Cadet performance Report (CPR) ratings made by superior, peer, and subordinate raters. CPR ratings include individual scores on 12 leadership behavior dimensions and a global score of performance. Two CPR dimensions, duty motivation and military hearing, were found to be most strongly related to the CPR global score and the leadership grade, which is USMA's official evaluation of a cadet's overall performance in a leadership role. Although this finding was consistent for each type of rater, the relationship of other dimensions to the global score and leadership grade suggested different types of raters focussed on different dimensions when evaluating overall leadership performance. Additionally, four broader factors were found to underlie the 12 CPR dimensions, based on a synthesis of the results from principle components analyses. Consistent with other leadership behavior taxonomies and other research concerning the effects of rater position on the leadership evaluation process, our findings offer some evidence of the construct validity of the CPR dimensions for measuring cadet leadership performance.

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